Since the jarring days in March 2020, when government shutdown orders silenced concerts in Nashville, the city's independent music venues have struggled to find a foothold.

Why it matters: This weekend, the gritty venues that have kept going through a pandemic, rising costs and corporatization are rallying together to put on a first-of-its-kind festival called 615 Indie Live. It's a "We're still standing" celebration.

• The Saturday event is an all-day festival held at 14 independent venues and featuring local artists.

Driving the news: Indie venues have endured a difficult few years. Long-running club operators like Chris Cobb at Exit/In and Todd Oldhauser at Mercy Lounge lost their leases.

• The art-house DIY venue Drkmttr was forced to convert to a nonprofit and hold an emergency fundraising drive in order to stay open.
• Vital cogs in the live music scene like the Basement East and Marathon Music Works entered into partnerships with corporate behemoth Live Nation.

The vibe: A $15 ticket earning fans access to every show at every venue, space permitting. The festival offers the perfect opportunity for music discovery of artists you've never heard before and venues you've never visited.

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Here are three venues and two artists worth checking out at this year's festival:

• Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge: A friendly neighborhood bar that doubles as a launching pad for ascending country and Americana artists, will host performances beginning at 2pm.
• The End: The humble, and frequently very loud, old venue located on the Rock Block will feature veteran rockers the Pink Spiders, DeeOhGee and Richie Kirkpatrick on Saturday night.
• Rudy's Jazz Room: Local soul legends the Wooten Brothers will perform at Nashville's only jazz club, one of the best kept secrets in the city's music scene.
• Black Opry: The collective of Black country musicians has produced some of country music's most promising new artists in recent years. Black Opry is scheduled for back-to-back shows at Cannery Hall.
• Six One Tribe: The Nashville hip-hop collective puts on an unparalleled live show featuring an array of artists. They play at the Basement at 9pm.

Nashville Predators co-owner and former Gov. Bill Haslam and his wife, Crissy Haslam, are leading a bid for the city to land a WNBA expansion franchise.

Driving the news: The Haslams are joined by country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as well as former University of Tennessee athletics legends Candace Parker and Peyton Manning. The Tennessean first reported the Haslam family's bid.

• The team will be called the Tennessee Summitt in homage to legendary Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt.

Why it matters: Nashville has invested billions of dollars to build stadiums and subsidize the operations of men's pro sports teams, but the city has yet to invest in women's pro sports. Haslam says this effort isn't asking for taxpayer money, as the new team is planning to play its games at Bridgestone Arena.

State of play: Haslam told the Tennessean he expected to find out if Nashville wins the bid in the next five or six months.

• The city has routinely been on the list of possible WNBA expansion possibilities, and a group of civic leaders has pushed for a women's pro sports franchise for the last several years.

Zoom out: Driven by young stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the WNBA has been crushing attendance and TV viewership records in recent years.

• WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said the league would like to add a 16th team by the 2028 season, per ESPN. Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia are considered other possibilities.
• Haslam said a practice facility will also be needed.

The bottom line: Nashville attorney Margaret Behm, who helped lead the push for women's pro sports in Nashville, tells Axios she's optimistic about the Haslam family's bid.

• "This bid seems to check all the boxes in what the WNBA looks for," Behm says. "(The ownership group) wants to play in this fabulous arena that wins industry awards. They're proposing to build a practice facility, which will be a community asset. The ownership group is stellar."

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Ben Vaughn, the president and CEO of Warner/Chappell Music Nashville, one of the most consequential music publishing executives in Music City, died yesterday.

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Even newcomers are welcomed at this hip-hop songwriting camp. (WPLN)

Antioch High students have walked through a new scanner system intended to detect weapons since returning to school. (Nashville Banner)

Music's biggest stars are squaring off Sunday at an especially competitive Grammy ceremony.

Why it matters: As is usually the case, all eyes are on Beyoncé.

State of play: Queen Bey is once again vying for the coveted album of the year trophy, an award she has never won despite churning out multiple revolutionary albums.

• It remains to be seen if her country-inflected opus "Cowboy Carter," which is easily one of the most discussed albums in years, will triumph.

Other nominees include the reigning champ Taylor Swift, Grammy darling Billie Eilish and ascendant divas Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.

Zoom in: We'll also be watching to see if Beyoncé wins in the country categories, where she could make history.

Fun fact: Axios' Maxwell Millington compared data from 2024 Spotify Wrapped to the albums that will be up for a golden gramophone.

• Four album of year nominees are among the country's top 10 most-streamed albums: Carpenter's "Short n' Sweet," Eilish's"Hit Me Hard and Soft," Roan's "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess" and Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department."

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